Football legend Paul Gascoigne has become a quick favourite for the crown of an Italian reality show as his language attempts left viewers laughing.
The 53-year-old former Newcastle United and England midfielder is appearing on L'Isola dei Famosi, which translates as The Celebrity Island or Island of the Famous.
And The Mirror reports that his introductory video tape on Monday's show has already made him a with the viewers as he misunderstood host Ilary Blasi.
Gateshead- born Gazza had previously spent three years in Rome playing for Lazio during his career.
He has been brushing up on the language ahead of the show in the hope that it will come back to him.
When asked about how well he is doing with the language, Paul couldn't hide his strong Geordie accent as he replied: "It's OK. It's only the first day, I'm hoping to improve it."
He did admit: "I'm not speaking perfect Italian."
It was from there though that his language skills started to unravel and he suffered a bit of a gaffe when he replied to a question asking what he is looking forward to by saying repeatedly: "Serpente" (snakes).
Undeterred, Paul added in Italian: "Fishing good me, very good me.
"Hands fish my, team hungry me. Confidence, first day, better speak, soon."
He added: "I'm here for a laugh and the experience," before finishing off in English: "I'll see you all on the f******g island".
The Sun reported that the show's presenter said: "Paul Gascoigne made us laugh with his pidgin Italian.
"Nonsense words, wrong words but to be fair he managed to make himself understood."
Paul has taken his preparation for the show seriously and a source told The Sun : "Paul has a basic grasp of Italian and he can make himself understood.
"But what we really want to avoid is having subtitles too often as that would ruin it.
"The idea is to get him up to a good conversational level so he can talk with the other competitors.
"We are expecting some exciting TV from Paul."
Gazza also told The Sun about what he feels he will bring to the camp and his 14 fellow campers.
He said: "My best quality is that I can make people laugh and I’m always laughing."
